The present invention relates to a car navigation art for receiving information and services from an information distribution service provider for distributing map information and traffic information by accessing a network by voice from a moving terminal device such as a car.
As a car navigation art for inputting and executing destination setting and telephone number access by holding a conversation by voice, Japanese Application Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 11-14394 (quoted example 1) may be cited. Further, as an art for accessing information on Internet from voice of a telephone set, Japanese Application Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 10-271223 (quoted example 2) and Japanese Application Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 10-177469 (quoted example 3) may be cited.
In the quoted example 1 of the prior art mentioned above, voice recognition is executed by a car terminal device and used for an operation command such as a menu and destination setting such as an address and land mark. However, there are problems imposed in the audio interaction that only voice based on a predetermined interaction can be input in relation to the CPU capacity of the car terminal device and moreover, various information on the Internet cannot be used synthetically. Further, the car terminal device has functions of car navigation and voice recognition, so that it is an expensive terminal. Further, map information is stored in CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, so that there is another problem imposed in maintenance such as periodic updating.
Furthermore, in the quoted examples 2 and 3, voice data input by voice is recognized by a voice-Internet gate way or a voice control host device connected to the Internet and on the basis of the result, access to the Internet and searching for information can be made possible. However, a problem arises that the audio interaction is not flexible such that only one object service can be given. Namely, there is a problem imposed that depending on information service distribution, the audio interaction method and voice recognition subject words are different and the quoted examples cannot correspond to them flexibly. In an environment that an instruction can be issued only by voice, map information such as destination setting and traffic information such as traffic congestion cannot be accessed simply.